Trained Pilot, Married Italian, Left Low-Key Life For Politics: A Look At Rajiv Gandhi's Life

Rajiv Gandhi is a former prime minister of India. At 41, Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest prime minister of India and perhaps one of the youngest elected heads of government in the world.

Youngest PM Of India

Rajiv Gandhi is a former prime minister of India. At 41, Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest prime minister of India and perhaps one of the youngest elected heads of government in the world.

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Political Legacy

Rajiv Gandhi's mother, Indira Gandhi, was eight years older when she first became prime minister in 1966. Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was 58 when he started his 17-year-long journey as free india’s first PM

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Rajiv Gandhi's Childhood

Born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay, Rajiv Gandhi was just three when India became independent and his grandfather became PM. His parents moved to New Delhi from Lucknow. His father, Feroze Gandhi, became an MP

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When He Met Sonia Gandhi

While studying at Trinity College, Rajiv Gandhi met a young Italian student studying English at the Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge, named Edvige Antonia Albina Màino. He later married her in a Hindu Ceremony in New Delhi in 1968.

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Rajiv-Sonia Led Private Life

Rajiv Gandhi and his wife, now known as Sonia Gandhi, stayed in Indira Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi with their two children, son Rahul and daughter Priyanka. They led a private life

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Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination

Rajiv Gandhi, India's Prime Minister between 1984 and 1989, was assassinated by LTTE cadres at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu in 1991 during an election campaign

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Why Did Rajiv Gandhi Enter Politics

Rajiv Gandhi had entered politics in 1980 to help his mother after the death of his brother Sanjay Gandhi in in an air crash

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Rajiv Gandhi's Early Education

Rajiv Gandhi spent his early childhood with his grandfather in the Teen Murti House, where Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister’s hostess. He briefly went to school at Welham Prep in Dehradun, but soon moved to the residential Doon School in the Himalayan foothills

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A Trained Pilot

Former PM of India Rajiv Gandhi was a trained commercial pilot and also operated for Indian Airlines

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Rajiv Gandhi Received Biggest Mandate

Rajiv Gandhi had received the biggest mandate in the country's history in elections. He ordered elections to the Lok Sabha as soon as mourning for his slain mother was over in 1984. In that election, the Congress captured a record 401 seats out of 508